The Carthill Group of Companies is opcraiing in Uzbekistan since 1995. The Carthill Group was one of the first representatives of British business who turned to the actively developing market of the Republic after its political and economic independence. In this case, it should be mentioned that the company's purely theoretical interest to the local market has been transformed into practical activity relatively soon. In order lo get familiarized with the new market conditions, Carthill started with its traditional business, i.e. trade. But after some time, it made a decision that development of its business in Uzbekistan should be in parallel with an adequate growth of businesses of its local partners. As the practice shows, this is the only possible way to form long-term, trusting and, what is the most important, mutually beneficial relations. Today, after 11 years of active and diversified operation in the different segments of the economy of the Republic, the Group is recognized as a reliable partner both inside the Republic and in the world market. In the most atypical economic situations, the Group is able to offer constructive solutions of problems and successfully put them into practice.

Due to a number of joint projects between the Group and the textile, silkworm breeding enterprises and agro industrial sector of the country, where the products are traditionally targeted at the foreign market, the enterprises managed to reach the level of reconstruction profitability though previously being at the verge of bankruptcy. The complex of antirecessionary measures included: acquiring by the Group of fixed blocks of shares from an enterprise, attracting of a sufficient volume of investments and their efficient utilization for retooling and modernization, as well as optimization and improvement of financial - and - economic activity and corporate governance. As an example of the Carthill Group joint projects having resulted in the obvious economic effect, it is possible to mention the project of renewal of the silk threads production at the "Kumush" JSC (Kashkadarya region), as well as the project aimed at production of the high-quality wine-and-vodka products at the "Shahrisabz Vino-Aroq" OJSC, etc.

In 2001, the Carthill Asset Management Company, a subsidiary enterprise, was established in order to improve the efficiency of the Group's and partners' assets management, to attract internal and foreign investments to the projects. With the direct participation of the Carthill AMC, significant investment resources have been attracted within five years of active operation in the country market; the investments obtained from the partners and from the Company's own funds have been allocated for establishment of a number of new enterprises in different sectors. The following could be recognized as the most successful industrial projects being under the CAMC management: Establishment of the Uzbek-British "Treston Holdings LLC" JV in the Kashkadarya region; the project is designed for grain processing, flour, flour goods and pearl barley production. A modern manufacturing line, USD 150,000,00 worth, has been purchased to launch the facility. Establishment of the "Treston Agro-food" JV (Kashkadarya region); the project is designed for fruit and vegetable processing with involvement of advanced technologies. The forecast volume of vitaminized fruit and vegetable products, packed in Tetra-Pack type tare, makes no less than 12 thousand tons per annum. The total amount of the JV Authorized Capital constitutes USD 500,000,00.

The CAMC activity allows not only to draw free funds from financial markets into industrial projects of the Group, but also to offer an independent business in the local market, i.e. a complex of services needed to form and manage the investment portfolio of a market entity, to arrange corporate governance and issuance of derivatives, first of all, of corporate bonds. The CAMC corporate assets-related experience in the financial market of the Republic was positively evaluated by the capital market regulators, particularly, by the State Properly Committee of the Republic; in the result, the company received, as trust stocks, significant blocks of shares being under the government ownership in a number of industrial enterprises. Striving for business diversification, in 2002 the Carthill Group entered one of the most promising and fast growing markets in Uzbekistan, i.e. the market of telecommunications. In an effort to accomplish the project of building up a unified, high-speed corporate data-transmission network between subdivisions being included into (he Foreign Trade Complex of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the Carthill group, jointly with the Ministry for Foreign Economic Relations, Investments and Trade of RUz and "Uzbektelekonr JSC has established the Uzbek-British "UNITECH" JV, which also successfully positions itself in the Internet-telephony and data transmission segments.

Today, the "UNITECH" JV is one of the leaders in the Republic system of integrators and providers of solutions and equipment to form computing and telecommunication systems of any class of complexity; also, the JV renders a number of other services in the sphere of telecommunications. In many respects, the success of the joint venture is determined by availability of highly skilled specialists certified by the companies manufacturing modern telecommunication equipment and supplying it to the Uzbek market; these are, in particular, Lucent Technologies, Cisco Systems, Nortel Network, Iskratel, and MRV Communication. One of the "UNITECH" JV's significant projects is establishment of the PLATINUM CONNFCT high speed multi-service data transmission network in the Republic. Implementation of the project became possible due to availability of modern telecommunication equipment with the company, and rclalcd software and technology. The PLATINUM CONNECT system won recognition of the public in August 2002 when, for the first time, a vidcoconferencc session between three distant territories of the Republic was organized based on the system. Nevertheless, the Company passed its first serious maturity test in May 2003 when, under the exclusive agreement with EBRD, the "UNITECH" JV provided the bank annual summit with all the means of telecommunication sen-ices, including Internet, telephony and data transmission based on the PLATINUM CONNECT network.

The JV "UNITECH" triumph at the Republic contest "Choice of the Year" (2003) (nomination: "Internet Provider #1") has become an unbiased appraisal of its activity. What was more significant, the jury introduced that nomination for the first time in the history of such event thus recognizing the role of Internet providers' services in the Republic as a new and quite formed segment of business. After the first public recognition of the Joint Venture activity (and the JV has been formed based on unprejudiced interviews with the global Internet network subscribers), the "UNITECH" JV wins prestigious contests every year. In particular, in 2004 the JV got a prize as the best "Operator Providing Multi-Purpose Cards Sen ices for Long Distance Telephony and Internet" in Uzbekistan. The PLATINUM CONNECT multi-purpose cards are in great demand among the local users (mostly among the private ones); it happens mainly due to the fact that the emitter can offer the clients a significant optimization of their financial expenses while using Internet and longdistance telephony. In April of 2005, the "UNITECH" JV won the international recognition at the Vllth International Convention on Quality which was held in Geneva; the JV got the "Century International Quality Era Award" for high quality.

On the oilier hand, position of the "UNITECH" JV as one of the leaders among system integrators of computing and telecommunication systems of any class of complexity in Republic, as well as an Internet and telephony operator imposes on the Company certain obligations to provide the related quality and extend the range of services. Understanding this, the "UNITECH" JV and Carthill Group of Companies, as a whole, step by step improves the complex of provided services and ensures simultaneous territorial extension of its branch network in all the regions of the Republic, with the prospect to enter the borderline markets.